*Newmarket Celtic kitman, Owen McCarthy. Photograph: Joe Buckley
NEWMARKET CELTIC kitman, Owen McCarthy is hoping to cap off his fifteenth season in the role by the club winning back the Premier Division to go alongside the FAI Junior Cup.
When you go to a Newmarket Celtic game, a few certainties will occur, Eoin Hayes will show a burst of pace, David O’Grady will let out a roar, Cathal Hayes will spit on some part of the pitch and Stephen Kelly will share his opinions with the match officials typically in the words “ah come on Lino”.
As regards McCarthy he could be doing anything, from fixing the nets with the match officials before they encounter Kelly, pumping balls to then fetching after them in Scoil na Maighdine Mhuire or climbing a tree. “I could be anywhere, I could be inside in the thorn bush, I could be gone for twenty five minutes, God only knows,” he said of his matchday role.
Indeed it results in him missing defining moments of a game such as Gearoid O’Brien’s winner against Fairview Rangers in the Munster Junior Cup semi-final after assistant manager Eoin O’Brien instructed him to the dressing room. “I didn’t even see the goal, we were planning for extra time so I was sent in for water and energy drinks, that’s how it goes, it’s part of the job,” he admitted.
Towards the end of the 2008 season when Paudie Cullinan and Philip Shier were over the side and chasing league honours, McCarthy first became involved with the set-up. “I was just up watching the matches, the boys were going to win the League back then and they were in a rush to get balls, Philip said he’d throw me a fiver if I got the balls, it went from there then,” he recounted.
Money, footballs and sliotars was familiar territory for the family. Some what could tell them entrepreneurs, others would be less kind with their descriptions but the McCarthy family even managed to make some quid off their ability to collect sliotars with Owen’s younger sister Ciara selling some of the sliotars they retrieved from Fr Murphy Memorial Park to former Newmarket-on-Fergus senior hurling coach Johnny Collins, all of this before she turned ten. “Down at the hurling field we could have collected 25,000 sliotars coming home one day, it’s been in the family alright,” Owen said, his calculations slightly off target but not for the first time.
Back up the road to McDonough Memorial Park and Owen’s first campaign involved saw Newmarket Celtic end a thirteen year drought to win the Premier Division. “Yeah, shur I kick started it”.
It was under the regime that followed of Liam Murphy and Davy Ryan that he was christened with the nickname Sammy Lee after the former Liverpool assistant manager. “Then Crusher and Davy took over, that’s how the name Sammy Lee came about. Crusher when he was first coming in, he says ‘you’re the Sammy Lee’, he got married then and I was going around looking for my seat at the wedding, I couldn’t find it, he had named the tables after Liverpool legends, I was down as Sammy Lee and didn’t even recognise it”.
Owen would remain a constant figure for subsequent managements including Mark O’Malley, Keith McInerney, both of Mike O’Malley’s terms to the current set-up headed up by Paddy Purcell. In 2014, he had to line out in goals, “it was going very bad that year,” he reflected, but then when when Crusher and Davy came back, it steadied the ship going again”.
“During one season there was only me and Jason Casey, he was involved but he was also playing in goals so, I like to say I was managing the team on the sideline then. There’s been ups and downs, the last eight or nine seasons we have really kicked on, it’s gotten bigger and better, consistently getting to the latter stages of Munster competitions and the FAI and also competing to win the league and cup every year, has made it bigger and better. It’s all about consistency, the training is consistent and every weekend we have a game, it’s way better, it’s going well”.
Each management has brought their own stamp, Sammy said. “Donal Magee was different to the likes of Crusher and Davy, Steve Austin is totally different, the set-up is mad because he’s there an hour before training and has it all organised so you’re not sitting around waiting for one drill to the next, it’s getting way better, you could have had the same ten people training every week to now twenty five lads training every night, the squad have all rolled into one”.
Ronan Arthur, Mike O’Malley, Mark Donlon, Liam Murphy, Eoin Hayes and David O’Grady are players namechecked by McCarthy as those he has grown particularly close to over the years. Some of the managers that he has been part of the backroom team for had previously been players while he was in the same role, “It’s been good, they’re still your best friend and would still talk to you, Mike O’Malley is up running the academy with U8s, U9s and U10s, he’d ring to give a hand or ref games, he’s one of the legends of the game. If the A team is going well then the whole club is going well, when the A team is not going well the club slacks, it’s healthy at the minute, the kids are all enjoying it, it’s great to see”.
Over the years, his role has changed ever so slightly and he no longer has to deal with the cannister of water bottles. “Before COVID, you had water bottles, there’s no water bottles anymore, they bring their own water, it’s still the same in looking after the jerseys and collecting the balls, nothing has changed too much, collecting money off them is the hard bit, getting €3 off them on a Sunday morning for the referee is a job alright, the new thing now is Revolut for the lads who don’t have cash. The Hayes’ can be very tight for the €3 on a Sunday morning, O’Grady might not have change, a lot of them don’t but then the revoluts come in. If we train outside our Astro the players pay for that themselves, so also being at those sessions, helping with the gear and the money is all part of the job”.
Speaking to The Clare Echo, he is not afraid to admit that he thought their chance of winning an FAI Junior Cup slipped them by and that their time at the top of Clare was coming to an end. “Five years ago when we lost to Pike and Stephen Kelly had two headers to get us back in the game and Ian Collins had the great chance after that I said it would never happen. Last season everyone thought we were finished, the team was over and it looked like it was going backwards, there wasn’t as many turning up for training, lads had been seven years constantly at it and just seemed to becoming to an end and I thought the run was over with the League and Cup gone but this year there’s been a new management with new thoughts and everyone has bought into it”.
He continued, “Training standards have come up, diet has improved, lads are all doing their extra bit on their own. Last year lads became disinterested, this year we’ve been in everything except the Clare Cup, it is all going well because of the extra squad numbers, last year we could have only 18, now there’s 27 or 28, it’s way better and the attitude is good, we’re all singing off the one hymn sheet, they are all excited to play for Newmarket and are all fighting for the jersey, last year you wouldn’t know who would turn up. To get over the line in the FAI was class”.
In an excellent speech after winning the FAI for the first time, captain Eoin Hayes gave a warm tribute to McCarthy. Looking out in front of a sea of red and white in Jackman Park, the skipper said, “He comes in for a lot of stick but I’m telling you now, he absolutely loves this club, there is no one and I’m looking out here, there is no one that loves this club more than him”.
Such words were appreciated by the former St Caimin’s Community School student, “He’s a nice fella, it was nice to get that gesture because not many people would be singled out. It’s a thankless job, not many people want to do it but I do it, if anyone rings me I’d be there, the soccer club could be ringing seven days a week to be up at the pitch whether it is U10s, U9s or to referee a game but the club means everything to me at this stage, if they want a hand I’ll always help out. In the last few years everyone begins to appreciate what you do, people have said ‘Sammy you’re a massive part of this and no one would be here without you’. I couldn’t thank Eoin Hayes enough for what he said in the speech”.
On the playing front, the Fabricated Products employee lined out with the club’s B team for two seasons. “I was in goals for them and played a full season in goals for them but then the A team was taking over, I was missing games or trainings so I said I’d stick to one, they were going well at the time whereas the B team were only iffing about, it’s hard to do both because they are either on at the same time or one is on at 2pm and you could be in Lahinch and they’re playing in O’Briensbridge, it was hard to keep the two going”.
His own family were among the first to put up the red and white flags in advance of Celtic’s appearances in the FAI and Munster Junior Cup finals but he describes the club as “my second family. I’ve been here so long, I was honoured last year by Jody Halpin for my service which was another good thing, if I die I’d say my ashes will go up on the pitch”.
Whether it’s the McCarthy clan or the Newmarket Celtic family that get more grief from Owen is hard to decipher but residents in the village of Newmarket-on-Fergus have also had to contend with the kit-man and his late-night singing sessions. “The people on the Ennis Rd will be sick of me by the time this league is over, hearing me singing,” he admitted.
At this stage, he has sung ‘Red is the Rose’ more than the Clancy brothers. “I was coming home on the bus from Waterford, Paudie Cullinan started singing it, I went home the next day, I took an hour or two to start learning the words then every day I started singing it and it stuck with me then, every journey someone says ‘Sammy when are you going singing the song’, at the minute I’m nearly singing it every five minutes. I sing it for breakfast and dinner these days, even the work colleagues are getting to know the song because I sing it inside in work. I’d say it’s the number one song in Newmarket now”.
An umpire with Niall Quinn and Chris Maguire, Owen does tend to get a bit of stick when the soccer clashes with his duties beside the posts.
Reflecting on the season as a whole, he points to the contribution of sub goalkeeper Dermot Gannon against Raheny in Dublin. “The turning point was up in Raheny, Shane Cusack went off injured, Dermot Gannon came on, the Dublin lads we’re giving him awful abuse ‘he’s only a so and so …’ and all after all that he pulls off the penalty save, they end up going to nine players after nearly breaking Kevin Harnett’s ankle, we go up the pitch and score, that was a big turning point in the season”.
Although he has contemplated stepping away as kitman, Newmarket Celtic will not need to go looking for someone else to go fetching footballs from trees, anytime soon. “There has been times where you’d think this is my last year but then you get the phone call before pre-season that you’re wanted, I’m never going to say no to them, when I get the call saying I’m not wanted then I won’t be a part of it. Crusher and Davy in 2018 they wanted to bring someone in new to freshen up but there wasn’t five games gone and they were ringing me to come back, they knew they couldn’t get anyone to fill the role so they wanted me straight back, I haven’t missed a game since”.
